Between the Lines: Daphne & Me

10/27/2026

As Told To

0:00

11:42

"'Frasier' didn't only define a period of my mom's life," writes Isabella Kathryn Coben, in the foreword to the memoir she co-wrote with her mother, the actress Jane Leeves, best known for her role as "Daphne Moon" on the long-running NBC sitcom. "It defined a period of mine."

Yes, it did, and in the pages of Daphne & Me: My Life on 'Frasier' (and a Bit More), she helps her mum give voice to her time on the set, and to revisit the stuff of her life and career.

As celebrity memoirs go, this one's pretty unique. In our 100+ episodes here at As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast, we've yet to feature a mother-daughter collaboration. In this excerpt, offered by Isabella, we can begin to see how this writing partnership frames Jane's story in a singular way, as author and co-author tap a wellspring of memories that are enriched by the moments mother and daughter have already shared, and strengthened by what they learned about each other during the writing process.

"Despite being my mother's daughter," Isabella writes, "I've come to find that I can't claim to know her all that well. It's only over the course of the last few years, in the process of writing this book, that I realized I hadn't a clue who this woman really was."

The great lesson here? Sometimes it takes rolling up your sleeves and working on a book with someone you love to understand that person better—to figure out where you've been, and where you might be going…together.

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